Henri de Saint-Simon

Henri de Saint-Simon was a French aristocrat who became a social theorist and one of the chief founders of Christian socialism. He was born in Paris in 1760, and claimed descent from Charlemagne. He entered military service at the age of 17 and fought in the American War of Independence. He returned to France during the French Revolution and bought up newly nationalized land with funds advanced by a friend. He was imprisoned during the Reign of Terror and emerged to find himself enormously rich because of the depreciation of the Revolutionary currency. He lived a life of splendour and license, entertaining prominent people from all walks of life at his glittering salons. Within several years he had brought himself close to bankruptcy. He turned to the study of science, attending courses at the École Polytechnique and entertaining distinguished scientists. In his first published work, Lettres d’un habitant de Genève à ses contemporains (1803; “Letters of an Inhabitant of Geneva to His Contemporaries”), Saint-Simon proposed that scientists take the place of priests in the social order. He argued that the property owners who held political power could hope to maintain themselves against the propertyless only by subsidizing the advance of knowledge. By 1808 Saint-Simon was impoverished, and the last 17 years of his life were lived mainly on the generosity of friends. Among his many later publications were De la réorganisation de la société européenne (1814; “On the Reorganization of European Society”) and L’industrie (1816–18, in collaboration with Auguste Comte; “Industry”). In his major work, Nouveau Christianisme (1825; “New Christianity”), he proclaimed a brotherhood of man that must accompany the scientific organization of industry and society. He died in Paris in 1825 after suffering a stroke. He was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His followers, known as Saint-Simonians, formed a utopian socialist movement that influenced many thinkers and social activists in the nineteenth century.